Every day I improve and grow better

by Arnaut Daniel

English version by Andrea Hopkins
Original Language Provencal

Every day I improve and grow better,
For I serve and adore the noblest lady
In the world -- and I declare it openly.
I am hers from head to foot;
And, even if the cold winds blow,
The love that is reigning within my heart
Keeps me warm in the deepest winter...
I don't want the Empire of Rome,
Or to be made Pope,
If it meant that I could not return
To her from whom my heart burns and cracks;
And if she does not heal my suffering
With a kiss before the end of the year
She will murder me and damn herself.
Yet for all the suffering I endure
I do not renounce sweet love,
Although it holds me in solitude
And therefore I have fashioned these words in rhyme
...I am Arnaut, who gathers the wind,
Who chases the hare with the ox,
And swims against the tide.

-- from The Book of Courtly Love: The Passionate Code of the Troubadours, by Andrea Hopkins

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The Book of Courtly Love: The Passionate Code of the Troubadours



Every day I improve